ALA Cognotes D.C. Highlights 2010 - (Page 12)

Page 12 • Cognotes 2010 Annual Conference Highlights • WASHINGTON, D.C. Dave Isay and StoryCorps: Preserving the Voices of Everyday People By Brad Martin LAC Group About seven years ago, a booth was set up in Grand Central Terminal in New York to record interviews that would later be preserved for future generations to hear. Studs Terkel cut the ribbon and made a remark about people knowing who designed the famous railroad terminal, but that that we didn’t know that much about the everyday people who built it. Dave Isay, founder of StoryCorps, spoke to ALA attendees about this ongoing project and shared many examples of the recordings. According to Isay, these recordings, which are being preserved at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, “exemplify “eloquence and grace and wisdom in the voices of everyday people.” Isay explained that “part of the power of listening to these recordings is that you are walking in their footsteps and you learn that there is more that unites us than divides us.” Danny and Annie Perasa, from Brooklyn, NY, came to the StoryCorps booth at Grand Central Terminal in the first or second week it PRO2935 CognotesPRINT shared was in operation, and Isay 5/27/10 stealing a book by Frank Yerby from a library because he didn’t want others to know for fear it might hurt his reputation as a tough guy. Years later, he recalled how he learned that the librarians actually had known he was doing this, and had encouraged his reading by going to great lengths to buy more books by the same author. He said he could not understand why every time he returned a book, there was a different title by the same author magically on the shelf for him. Isay played several other excerpts, including a couple of sanitation workers recalling being in Memphis at the time Martin Luther Jr. was killed and a retired librarian telling her husband about how she originally prepared for her career by cataloging her comic books as a little girl. StoryCorps will be coming to television this summer with animated cartoons accompanying the recordings, and Isay played one example of a young boy named Joshua Littman interviewing and being interviewed by his mother Sarah. He closed by saying, “these are the people we should be building statues of in this country... at its core, every life matters equally.” Marlo Thomas Dave Isay some excerpts from several recordings they made over the years and which have been featured on NPR. One recording was broadcast just days before Danny, a retired OTB worker, died of cancer, and the original StoryCorps booth was renamed in his honor. “This is about the real America,” Isay said, “not the celebrities, the Lady Gagas, the sludge that comes in over TV so often.” Isay also played a recording of an interview between Olly Neal and his daughter Karama. Neal, a retired 1:48 PM told of1being a teenager and judge, Page Marlo Thomas Cultivates Seeds of Laughter By Stacy L. Voeller Minnesota State University Moorhead The Sunday, June 27 Auditorium Speaker Series featured Marlo Thomas, whose new book and memoir, Growing Up Laughing: My Story and the Story of Funny, will be published in September. In writing her new book, Thomas told the audience, “About two years ago I decided to write my own story, and what it was like to grow up the daughter of an actor and about becoming a comedic actress myself. It was like a treasure hunt looking for and remembering these little golden pieces of my life.” Thomas recalled her earliest memories of comedy. “I remember at the age of eight listening to my father rewind and rewind his tapes. He really always tried to make his act the best for his audience. After her book Free to Be…You and Me was out and successful, “my father was campaigning as he often did for a local politician. My father was a conservative republican, and I am a liberal democrat. He was campaigning for someone I didn’t like, so I asked him how he could possibly do that telling him that he was a creep and it looked bad for the whole family. My father said, ‘Oh, I get it, I’m free to be you and not free to be me?’ Well, he got me there.” Thomas wondered, “How did the seeds of laughter get planted into the DNA of the great comedians we love today. I asked some of the top comedians to open up to me and tell me how they got their funny. Jerry Seinfeld told me that the average child laughs 75 times per day, and the average adult only laughs 12. He said his goal was to make adults laugh 75 times a day. I know I laugh 75 times a day.” In many ways the comedians she spoke with experienced the same kind of family fun and laughter as she did growing up. “My father got his [sense of humor] from his uncle who was so funny he was barred from family funerals. I had a really fun time writing the book, and I think you’ll enjoy it.” She closed wishing the audience good health and good fortune, and lots of laughs. Open the Door to Inspiration. Project MUSE is adding back issues and more! A core discovery and research tool for scholars in the humanities and social sciences, Project MUSE now offers even more rich archival content electronically. Back issues from over 80 of our respected, peer-reviewed journals are being added, with many available from the first issue. And, MUSE is incorporating further top quality and innovative new titles into the collections this year and for 2011. Accessing this wealth of information has never been easier, with Project MUSE’s affordable pricing and variety of subscription options for libraries of all types and sizes. For fifteen years, we’ve been providing the best current and archival scholarship to today’s researchers, driving tomorrow’s inspiration. Visit us at Booth #3833 and unlock the door to discovery. http://muse.jhu.edu FREE 45-day trial offer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlo_Thomas http://www.storycorps.org/about/our-team/ http://muse.jhu.edu http://muse.jhu.edu

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ALA Cognotes D.C. Highlights 2010

ALA Cognotes D.C. Highlights 2010
Librarians Rally on Capitol Hill
Exhibitors Add International Flair
Amy Sedaris Regales Audience At ALA Annual 2010 Closer
Junot Diaz: His Life a Canvas
John Grisham Thanks Libraries
Authors Recognized for Contributions to Children’s Literature at Newbery Caldecott Awards Banquet
Will Shortz Tests Librarians’ Puzzle Skills
NBA Star Dwyane Wade Honorary Chair of Library Card Sign-up Month
APALA Celebrates Its History, Accomplishments, Current Programs, and Members at 30th Anniversary Gala
Library Champions
Librarians Can Change Society
DEMCO/AILA 2010 Scholarship Awards
Dave Isay and StoryCorps: Preserving the Voices of Everyday People
Marlo Thomas Cultivates Seeds of Laughter
Kidd and Taylor: On Memoirs, Relationships
Revised Intellectual Freedom Manual Introduced
Toni Morrison and Libraries: An Intimate Relationship
Sir Salman Rushdie Putting Messages in a Bottle
Eppo van Nispen Inspires Librarians to Finish Strong
Technology Titans Reach Out to Libraries in ALA Technology Pavilion
Archivists and Librarians Working with Legislative Records Display Synergy at GODORT Session

ALA Cognotes D.C. Highlights 2010